Rumored iPad mini expected to ship on November 2

Apple likely expects it to be a hot item for the holidays.

Apple is expected to announce a smaller, 7.85-inch iPad mini next week on October 23, and early orders are rumored to be in the hands of buyers by November 2, according to a couple recent reports.

Just after Apple announced this week that it was holding a special media event to show us "a little more," a source within a major UK retailer told Geeky Gadgets that the "iPad mini" would be available in the US and UK, "and possible other countries," on Friday, November 2. The same source, who had correctly identified the ship date for the iPhone 5 ahead of its release, also suggested that pre-orders would begin on Friday, October 26, following the device's expected unveiling on October 23.

TechCrunch echoed that information on Friday. Citing a source "close to Apple’s supply chain," the site corroborated Geeky Gadget's information that the device would indeed be shipping to pre-order buyers on November 2.

That timeline is similar to the one Apple employed for the launch of the iPhone 5 last month. The device was announced on September 12, with preorders beginning on the following Friday. The first devices began shipping to consumers a week later.

Apple likely expects the device to be a popular gift for the holidays, with rumors suggesting the company expects to produce more than 10 million units in the fourth quarter. Apple likely doesn't want to waste any time getting it on store shelves for the busy shopping season that kicks off in earnest in late November.

I am dying to find out how Apple is going to price this thing. Not because I plan to purchase one, but because tablet market drama is really interesting right now. Seems to me like Apple really has to thread the needle on price to make the iPad mini value proposition work. should it cost more/less than an iPad2? how should it compare to entrants like Nexus7 and Kindle Fire HD?

I am dying to find out how Apple is going to price this thing. Not because I plan to purchase one, but because tablet market drama is really interesting right now. Seems to me like Apple really has to thread the needle on price to make the iPad mini value proposition work. should it cost more/less than an iPad2? how should it compare to entrants like Nexus7 and Kindle Fire HD?

should be an interesting few weeks.

I'd love for them to go low with the price as a way to "infect" more people and drag them into the Apple Ecosystem. I'd love to get at least a couple for the kids this holiday season if they are inexpensive enough. Otherwise it'll be android tabs all the way.

I'd love for them to go low with the price as a way to "infect" more people and drag them into the Apple Ecosystem. I'd love to get at least a couple for the kids this holiday season if they are inexpensive enough. Otherwise it'll be android tabs all the way.

That does seem to be the preferred strategy in the 7" market, take a loss on hardware as a way to bring people into the digital storefront. But it is also a seemingly un-Apple thing to do. Their premium pricing has been the main way that they have been able to distance themselves from the "cheap" alternatives. Competing on price with Amazon and Google would be admitting that the iPad mini offers a similar (not better) value than the others. An admission that I think Apple would be loathe to make as it tarnishes the brand.

I'd love for them to go low with the price as a way to "infect" more people and drag them into the Apple Ecosystem. I'd love to get at least a couple for the kids this holiday season if they are inexpensive enough. Otherwise it'll be android tabs all the way.

That does seem to be the preferred strategy in the 7" market, take a loss on hardware as a way to bring people into the digital storefront. But it is also a seemingly un-Apple thing to do. Their premium pricing has been the main way that they have been able to distance themselves from the "cheap" alternatives. Competing on price with Amazon and Google would be admitting that the iPad mini offers a similar (not better) value than the others. An admission that I think Apple would be loathe to make as it tarnishes the brand.

Are you forgetting that Apple set the standard for $500 tablets, something that other manufactures are still struggling to accomplish without breaking even / losing money.

I have around $200 Apple flavored beans sitting around that very well might be allocated for this... I seriously doubt the iPad Mini will be this cheap, however. I am guessing $250, 300, 400 (16/32/64GB)

My curiosity is more about which processor. The iPhone 5 is a real screamer, so naturally I want an A6, but an A5 or A5x depending on the screen res makes more sense.

I'd love for them to go low with the price as a way to "infect" more people and drag them into the Apple Ecosystem. I'd love to get at least a couple for the kids this holiday season if they are inexpensive enough. Otherwise it'll be android tabs all the way.

That does seem to be the preferred strategy in the 7" market, take a loss on hardware as a way to bring people into the digital storefront. But it is also a seemingly un-Apple thing to do. Their premium pricing has been the main way that they have been able to distance themselves from the "cheap" alternatives. Competing on price with Amazon and Google would be admitting that the iPad mini offers a similar (not better) value than the others. An admission that I think Apple would be loathe to make as it tarnishes the brand.

Are you forgetting that Apple set the standard for $500 tablets, something that other manufactures are still struggling to accomplish without breaking even / losing money.

I wonder what interplay among the supply chains between iPhone and iPad Mini might affect availability. If they're having trouble cranking out iPhone at speed, is that because of lines busy with iPad Mini? Will there be plenty of iPads November 2, or will they dry up as quickly as iPhone did?

Someone doesn't like me if they downvote my bill of materials link and calculation-estimate for the iPad mini!

Regardless, I think a $299 iPad mini will, in fact, kill the competition, grow the iPad market, and not cannibalize the iPad if it does in fact ship with 8gb.

So for $399 you have to pick between a 16gb iPad mini at 7.85" vs a 16gb iPad 2 at 9.7" with no real difference in battery life. What you're really picking is whether your eyesight is good (7.85") or bad (9.7"), with some consideration of course for weight, etc.

Someone doesn't like me if they downvote my bill of materials link and calculation-estimate for the iPad mini!

Regardless, I think a $299 iPad mini will, in fact, kill the competition, grow the iPad market, and not cannibalize the iPad if it does in fact ship with 8gb.

So for $399 you have to pick between a 16gb iPad mini at 7.85" vs a 16gb iPad 2 at 9.7" with no real difference in battery life. What you're really picking is whether your eyesight is good (7.85") or bad (9.7"), with some consideration of course for weight, etc.

The new iPad Air will be 50% less in size than the iPad 2. How will it not be $250 for the base model?

So for $399 you have to pick between a 16gb iPad mini at 7.85" vs a 16gb iPad 2 at 9.7" with no real difference in battery life. What you're really picking is whether your eyesight is good (7.85") or bad (9.7"), with some consideration of course for weight, etc.

Or how it fits into a purse? Just sayin'. I heard once there a whole bunch of people out there who use those purse things to carry stuff.

Someone doesn't like me if they downvote my bill of materials link and calculation-estimate for the iPad mini!

Regardless, I think a $299 iPad mini will, in fact, kill the competition, grow the iPad market, and not cannibalize the iPad if it does in fact ship with 8gb.

So for $399 you have to pick between a 16gb iPad mini at 7.85" vs a 16gb iPad 2 at 9.7" with no real difference in battery life. What you're really picking is whether your eyesight is good (7.85") or bad (9.7"), with some consideration of course for weight, etc.

Are you surprised that someone doesn't like you here I think the 8" ipad will cannibalize the ipad3 for sure. I would've bought one instead of the ipad3 had it been available or expected.I'm expecting a $300 starting point. Don't really like the $100 per 8 GB of storage though and hope they fix the prices for that. It's absurd.

I'm not so sure these aren't timed leaks. There are all these other tablets releasing around late October and November. It would be a good strategy to throw out "hints" to get people to wait. The large Kindle Fire HD along with the Nook HD and the MS tablet will no longer own the spotlight because it's pretty much a given who will get prime media attention if this is indeed announced in 4 days.

Regarding the rumored date (Nov 2), I don't see how it remotely matters in the grand scheme of things. It's after the quarter financial report, and much earlier than the holiday season. Whether it's Oct 29, Nov 2, or Nov 12, seems quite unimportant.

Given Apple's traditional upsell pricing strategy I expect it to be $299 for the base model.

Also doing a straight reduction of 30% on battery, screen, flash, and chassis gives us a BOM under $199, compared to the existing iPad 2/3 parts.

It would have slightly lower 36% margins, compared to 40% for the iPad 2 and 38% for the iPad 3, but still healthy.

No, they learned from the SmartPhone market.... they will jump in at $250 an destroy Android.

Volume does matter if it kills you're competition.

Margin won't matter when they own the market... iPod.

I get the feeling (or at least hope) there are enough people out there that wouldn't purchase an iPad, even if it was the same price as a comparable Android. Though, I think a lot of people would. Hopefully, since Google is involved, this won't be a repeat of the mp3 market and we'll have two (or 3 if microsoft can get it's act together) great choices for tablets.

I do highly doubt a $250 iPad Air/Mini though unless they skimp to 8gb (which seems too low with the size of their game apps), an older processor and lesser display. Since all of us are tossing guesses around, I'm guessing $299 for their base model (8 or 16 though?)..

I'm also curious to see how portable it is, as it's really an 8" tablet, which is too wide to fit in a pocket like the 7" ones do (and smaller purses).. I'm sure they'll still sell like hotcakes though.. looking forward to the next two weeks of announcements from Apple, Microsoft and Google.

Someone doesn't like me if they downvote my bill of materials link and calculation-estimate for the iPad mini!

Regardless, I think a $299 iPad mini will, in fact, kill the competition, grow the iPad market, and not cannibalize the iPad if it does in fact ship with 8gb.

So for $399 you have to pick between a 16gb iPad mini at 7.85" vs a 16gb iPad 2 at 9.7" with no real difference in battery life. What you're really picking is whether your eyesight is good (7.85") or bad (9.7"), with some consideration of course for weight, etc.

The new iPad Air will be 50% less in size than the iPad 2. How will it not be $250 for the base model?

%50 less would be $200.

What kind of math are you doing?

We can't estimate the bezel size, officially, but at least based on the screen sizes:7.85" is 80.9% of 9.7"19% less than 9.7" would be 7.85"

50% of 9.7" would be 4.85"50% less than 9.7" would also be 4.85"

Since a iPad mini would be 19% less than a 9.7" iPad, you cannot realistically drop component prices by 50%; I'm already being optimistic in dropping screen, battery, chassis, and packaging by 30%, because I assume the bezel is thinner and the screen and SoC are slightly more efficient and the flash is halved to 8gb.

The only product that is 50% less is the iPod touch, what with it's 3.5" screen and older A4 SoC.

BKMAK has it right. Go low and draw more people into the system. Think about how many of us PC folks were introduced to Apple with a low entry cost Ipod back in the day, and are now Apple households all the way. $250 or better for the low end would do it. And i dont think they are canabalizing full size pad purchasers, but rather giving Kindle fire buyers another choice. Those folks were unlikely to buy a pad anyway.

not sure i get the down voting in general, some harmless posts are being down voted. guy thinking to upgrading his original ipad to a new has -1. seems a perfectly reasonable comment.

Maybe it's because people have infinite votes and not a handful like on, say, Slashdot, so they just go down the list clicking every vote. Someone downvoted my comment that people who use purses might like the smaller iPad. Why would someone bother doing that? I advocate everyone take up a form of forum jury nullification and upvote the negatives and downvote the positives, and drive all the posts ratings to 0. ;-)

I think an iPad mini will make a great remote-control devices for home automation, particularly when paired with an Airplay device. The iPod Touch and Phone are too small, imo. I also think the mini will make a perfectly sized interface for automobile media player. If it doesn't have cellular, that would be a shame.

For those who say Apple's "information leaks" have gotten worse recently... look at it the other way:

A producer who releases one update per product per year... has managed to captivate just about the entire year's news cycle. I'm positive they are intentionally feeding the rumor mongers, potentially with misleading mockups, professionals intentionally taking "blurry-cam" shots, etc.

Apple has shown they have mastered advertizing and maximizing expectations. I think that's one reason others (Samsung, HTC, etc) release models all year long... to try to stay in the news.

BKMAK has it right. Go low and draw more people into the system. Think about how many of us PC folks were introduced to Apple with a low entry cost Ipod back in the day, and are now Apple households all the way. $250 or better for the low end would do it. And i dont think they are canabalizing full size pad purchasers, but rather giving Kindle fire buyers another choice. Those folks were unlikely to buy a pad anyway.

not sure i get the down voting in general, some harmless posts are being down voted. guy thinking to upgrading his original ipad to a new has -1. seems a perfectly reasonable comment.

Maybe it's because people have infinite votes and not a handful like on, say, Slashdot, so they just go down the list clicking every vote. Someone downvoted my comment that people who use purses might like the smaller iPad. Why would someone bother doing that? I advocate everyone take up a form of forum jury nullification and upvote the negatives and downvote the positives, and drive all the posts ratings to 0. ;-)

Yeah, voting makes no sense, but when has it ever...

My previous post, one of the few on topic (the rumored date), got 2 votes down, likely for dismissing the specific reason for existence of this thread. I myself have given almost exclusively up-votes, I don't know why... voting is cheap, I guess.

I'd love for them to go low with the price as a way to "infect" more people and drag them into the Apple Ecosystem. I'd love to get at least a couple for the kids this holiday season if they are inexpensive enough. Otherwise it'll be android tabs all the way.

That does seem to be the preferred strategy in the 7" market, take a loss on hardware as a way to bring people into the digital storefront. But it is also a seemingly un-Apple thing to do. Their premium pricing has been the main way that they have been able to distance themselves from the "cheap" alternatives. Competing on price with Amazon and Google would be admitting that the iPad mini offers a similar (not better) value than the others. An admission that I think Apple would be loathe to make as it tarnishes the brand.

Are you forgetting that Apple set the standard for $500 tablets, something that other manufactures are still struggling to accomplish without breaking even / losing money.

I'm still betting on $250 and I have a lot of Apple stock and a lot to lose.

I think Apple knows they can destroy the competition at this price or less.

I'll go further: If the price point comes in < $300 (much less $249) why on earth would someone buy any thing else? Religious affiliation?If that happens, the current 7" market offerings are going to suffer severe abrasion this holiday season.